Man who killed girl and served time with innocent inmate sentenced to life

TOWSON, Md. - A man who killed a 9-year-old girl and kept silent about it even after serving time with the inmate wrongly convicted in her death was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

Kimberly Ruffner pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the 1984 death of Dawn Hamilton.

Ruffner did time in the same prison as Kirk Bloodsworth, the man convicted in Dawn's death based on the identification of witnesses and circumstantial evidence. Bloodsworth was cleared using DNA evidence, and Ruffner was identified as a suspect.

The two men lifted weights together, and Bloodsworth delivered books to Ruffner's cell in his job as a prison librarian. Bloodsworth has said Ruffner knew about his case, his attempts to win a new trial and his claims of innocence.

But Ruffner's lawyer, Archangelo Tuminelli, said his client never realized Bloodsworth was serving a sentence for killing his victim.

"He never knew the name of the child he killed. That child's name meant nothing to him," Tuminelli told the judge.

At one point during Thursday's hearing, Tuminelli mentioned that Ruffner "probably" killed Dawn. Circuit Judge Robert Cadigan then angrily ordered Ruffner, 46, to look at photos of Dawn's body.

"The photos are just horrific. What he did to this poor, defenseless little girl is unspeakable," the judge said.

Cadigan asked Ruffner if he had anything to say before he was sentenced.

"There's nothing I can say," Ruffner replied.

Bloodsworth was twice convicted of the girl's murder and was sentenced to die. After struggling for years to prove his innocence, he was cleared in 1993 on evidence gathered from a semen stain on the victim's underwear. The evidence was then entered into a state database, and Ruffner was charged in September.

"I will continue my quest to find solutions to our broken and flawed criminal justice system - the system failed Dawn, the Hamilton family and me. It was broke the day she died, and it is still broke today," Bloodsworth said in a statement Thursday.

According to court records, Ruffner was acquitted of rape 12 days before Dawn's death. Shortly after she was killed, he was arrested for attempted rape and attempted murder in another case. He is serving a 45-year sentence for those crimes.

Ruffner will be eligible for parole on the murder charge, but it is unlikely he would ever be freed.